Phantom Pain
by Poke-Melody
Summary: Yang was feeling slightly off, so her she was feeling more easily angered. Which led to her and Blake getting into a pretty nasty fight. And at the same time, Yang starts to have issues with her new arm and Blake starts dealing with more guilt and self-blame.


It started right before the incident with the Apathy. Yang felt something was wrong with her arm, but then the Apathy Grimm thing started and she convinced herself there where more important things to worry about over an arm that was no longer there.

But it got worse once they got to Atlas. They were introduced to Jaune's sister and her wife, they were really nice people so she didn't want to bother them with this issue. But it eventually got to the point where she could no longer ignore it.

It happened while she and the rest of Team RWBY went to run a few errands for Saphron. They had just finished picking up groceries when the weather got bad and started to snow really hard. That's when it started to get too much.

"Ow..." Yang muttered, lifting her up to where her prosthetic arm met her real arm.

"Yang, is everything okay?" asked Weiss turning around, gaining the attention of the rest of the team.

"I-It's nothing, don't worry about it. I think the cold's just getting to me..." was all she said.

"Yang, you really don't look good. Here, let me carry some of those bags." said Blake as she started to make a grab for the bags in Yang's hands.

"No!" Yang shouted, backing away a bit. "You don't need to baby me, Blake! I said I was fine!"

Blake was taken aback by Yang's sudden mood change and took a step back. She had a feeling she was suffocating Yang a bit but didn't think it was this bad.

"Hey, guys..." Ruby tried to grab their attention, but Blake spoke over her.

"Look, Yang! I'm just worried for you. You don't have to be so stubborn and ignore other people when they wanna help!"

"Oh, now you're worried?! Where were I woke up after YOUR boyfriend cut MY arm off?!"

"My boyfriend?! Yang, are you seriously trying to blame this on me? You're the one who came running after me and fought Adam when you were clearly out of your league!"

"Yeah, you made how you felt about all that when you ran away and didn't even wait to see if I was okay!"

"Guys!" Ruby called again, grabbing the attention of the two this time. "Y-you're causing a scene." was all she said as she gestured to the crowd that had gathered.

"Whatever, carry your own damn bags..." Blake muttered walking ahead of the team.

She felt horrible for acting like that. She wanted Yang to blame her for everything. Adam wouldn't have gotten to Yang if it weren't for her. But it still hurt to hear that come out of Yang's mouth. Blake just kept walking, not even knowing if the rest of the team was following behind her. But she was snapped out of her pity-party by Ruby's frantic yelling.

"Yang! Yang what's wrong?" Ruby yelled.

Blake turned around to see Ruby and Weiss leaning over to a fallen over Yang who was breathing heavily and gripping at her arm.

"Yang!" Blake cried dropping the bags and running over to her teammates. "Yang, what's wrong?" Blake fell on her knees, grabbing Yang by her shoulders.

"I-I don't... I don't f-feel so good..." Yang slurred out.

"Yang, please tell us what you're feeling so we can help you." spoke Weiss, taking charge of the situation.

"I-It's my arm, it aches and burns..."

Weiss moved Blake aside, hoping that what she had theory of wasn't true. Despite Yang's weak fight against her, she pulled a side of Yang's jacket off. Far enough to see where the prosthetic met skin. She could see red marks surrounded by a black hue and her suspicions were proven correct.

"The metal on her arm has gotten so cold to the point that she's has frostbite." Weiss exclaims. "We have to get her inside and warmed up!"

"I'll help Yang walk." Blake said as she draped Yang's good arm over her shoulder and helped her stand. While Weiss and Ruby picked up the bags that Yang and Blake could no longer carry. Blake put a hand up to Yang's forehead as the walked and took in a sharp breath. "Guys! She's also running a fever!"

"We have to hurry, Saphron's house isn't too far from here!" called Weiss.

After ten minutes of running they had finally reached the Cotta-Arc house. Ruby ran ahead to warn everyone.

"Uncle Qrow! Uncle Qrow where are you?!" Ruby cried throwing the bags down and running through the house.

"That uncle of yours went to find a bar, what's wrong? Where's the fire?" Maria asked, hobbling over.

"I-It's Yang! Arm! Fever! Frostbite!" was all she could babble out in her panic. Thankfully Maria was able to understand what she was trying to say.

"Okay, Ruby I need you to go get a bowl of warm water, WARM not hot, got it?" Ruby nodded. "Good, Oscar! Come help set a place in one of the bedrooms, I'll need you to grab blankets."

"Yes, ma'am." Oscar said before running off towards the nearest closets.

As Ruby was getting the water, Weiss and Blake came in half carrying Yang.

"In here!" Maria called from a bedroom when she saw the three girls come in. "Ruby, I'm also gonna need you to find some washcloths while you're getting that water."

"R-right!" Ruby stuttered out frantically looking around the kitchen until she found a couple in a cupboard. She grabbed a bunch and grabbed the bowl of water and made her way towards the room her sister was being treated in.

"Oscar, ever treated anything like frostbite before?" Maria asked.

"Y-Yes ma'am I have, my family's gotten minor cases during the winter."

"Good, you'll help me treat her. The rest of you, I'm gonna have to ask you to close the door and wait outside." Maria instructed.

"What?! No! Yang's my sister, let me help her! Please!" Ruby said setting down the bowl and washcloths. She looked over at her big sister who was withering in pain on the bed.

"No, you children have no idea how to treat this and I'm sure you've heard of the saying that a doctor shouldn't treat their own family. You will all wait outside, you'll only get in the way in here. Ruby, you should take this moment to try and get ahold of your Uncle. He should know whats going on."

"O-Okay..." was all Ruby could say, but she didn't make any sort of movement to leave the room.

Weiss took charge again and grabbed Ruby and Blake by their arms and guided them out. "If there's anything we can do, please let us know." was all Weiss said before closing the door.

Ruby began frantically digging through her pockets trying to find her scroll. When she finally found it, she pulled it out of her pocket so fast it almost flew out of her hands. She then started to frantically tap in the number to her uncle's scroll, she was so freaked out she didn't remember he was on speed dial.

While Ruby was busy trying to reach Qrow, Weiss turned around to see Blake, back against the wall, sliding down and pulling her knees to her chest.

"Blake... are you okay?" Weiss asked softly and slowly.

"I-Its... It's all... It's all my f-f-f-fault..." was all she was able to get to get out as she started to slowly rock back and forth.

"N-No, Blake! This is not your fault."

"Yes it is!" Blake yelled. "I-if she hadn't come to save me... she-she-she would still have her arm, she wouldn't be hurting right now... It's all my fault!"

"Blake, look at me!" Weiss said, grabbing Blake by the shoulders. "You were not the one that cut Yang's arm off! So you are not to blame here!"

"Yes it is! It was MY ex-boyfriend who did this to her just to hurt ME! If I wasn't as close with Yang as I am, then he wouldn't have hurt her like that!" she sobbed.

"Blake... do you blame me for what the Schnee Dust Company did to the Faunus?"

"What?! Maybe at the beginning but then I realized you were just as much as a victim as I was. Your father was the real one at fault."

"That same logic applies here as well. You are not to blame for what someone else did just because you are somehow affiliated with them. Adam was the one who did this to Yang, and to you! You are just as much a victim here as Yang is. Do you hear me?"

Blake's sobbing was reduced to small sniffling.

"Y-Yeah, I d-do..." was all she said before leaning onto Weiss's shoulder. "How did you learn to say stuff like that?"

"Back when dad forced me back home, and I really started to see what the Schnee Dust Company did to people, I hated myself so much. I hated myself for not seeing it sooner and just turning a blind eye at all the warning signs. The staff that worked for my father, the ones who worked around the house... they realized what was wrong. Nobody else in my family could see the problem I was having but the maids and butlers who have taken care of me since I was a baby where able to see what I was going through. That's the kind of stuff they said to me to get me out of that awful feeling. Granted, I still feel it when we go around and see the damage that my father's company has done, but I tell myself that to lessen the guilt enough where I can carry on."

Blake couldn't help but smile at her teammate.

"You know... people should really stop calling you Ice Queen." Blake laughed.

"Yeah- wait! Do people still call me that?!" cried Weiss before Blake let out another laugh.

It was then that Ruby shuffled over and sat down next to Blake and Weiss. Her initial panic had resided and now she feels like she's about to crash from the adrenaline rush she had. The others looked over at her and saw dried tear tracks running down her face.

"Uncle Qrow wouldn't pick up... I called like 10 times and sent 20 texts. First he gets drunk off his ass while we fought the Apathy and now he's drinking through this..."

Blake and Weiss silently comforted their team leader.

"I'm gonna apologize to Yang when she's better. I feel awful about the things we fought about, and I'm sure we'll both feel better if I were to let her know that." Blake smiled.

"Aw yeah! That'll totally help get Yang back on her feet. She forgives people like that!" Ruby snapped her fingers. "Plus, the things she said to you were pretty bad, she owes you an apology too."

"No, she's sick. Fever's make you do crazy things, she probably won't even remember it later."

"That's still no excuse! Yang really likes you, Blake. And trust me, Yang NEVER forgets. When her fever comes down she'll remember and will probably become your maid to apologize." Ruby laughed.

"Not gonna lie, that would be funny..." Weiss chuckled.

"She... she likes me?" Blake asked, nervously rubbing her arm and facing away from her friends.

"Of course! She wouldn't have gone through all that for you Blake if she didn't love you." Ruby smiled.

"I agree, it takes a special kind of love for Yang to go so far as doing something like that for someone." Weiss agreed.

Blake lowered head, her blushing so much Weiss thought she could she see a pink tint on her cat ears.

"Hey! We're back! Why are the groceries thrown everywhere?" came Jaune's voice.

"Oh crap! The ice cream!" Ruby shouted standing up and rushing over to the grocery bags she and Weiss had thrown over the floor when they came back.

"It's been a really long day, I can explain." Weiss said, standing up.

Weiss explained everything that happened for JNR and that Yang was getting treated right now.

"I have a feeling she's gonna be okay. Yang is the strongest person I've ever known." Weiss smiled.

"Good news!" Ruby yelled running in with a carton of ice cream. "The ice cream did not melt! Ice cream on me tonight!"

"Hey! Saphron paid for those groceries." Jaune said.

"Yeah, well... I'm gonna be the one serving it... So your welcome." Ruby said before quickly leaving the room to put the ice cream in the freezer.

"I'm glad she's not stressed anymore." said Blake finally standing up from her spot on the floor.

"Same goes for you." Weiss said. "I thought you were going to get more sick then Yang was when you were panicking."

The group talked quietly for the next hour, waiting to hear news on Yang. When Maria and Oscar finally came out of the room everyone in the room stood up.

"H-How's Yang?" Ruby asked.

"She's going to be fine." everyone let out a huge sigh of relief from hearing that. "The metal from her arm got really cold which led to her getting frostbite. On top of that, the harsh weather here caused her injury to ache more than usual. Ignoring the pain and not doing anything about it probably caused her to develop a fever."

"How bad was the frostbite?" Weiss asked.

"It wasn't as bad as it looked, Oscar and I were able to treat her with home remedies so she should be back on her feet within a couple days or so."

Before anybody had a chance to say anything else, Ruby broke out in ugly sobs and launched herself at Maria.

"Thank yoooouuuuuuu!" Ruby cried wrapping her arms around Maria in the biggest hug she could muster.

"No problem at all, dear." Maria chuckled. "You can go on in and check on her if you would like."

With that, Ruby bounced off to Yang's room.

When Ruby entered the room, she could see Yang who looked like she woke up a few minutes ago, her prosthetic arm taken off and put on the side table.

"Yang, how are you feeling?" Ruby asked, taking a seat next to the bed.

"Urg, gross. What happened?" she asked.

Ruby explained everything that happened since they left the grocery store.

"Damn it, everything is a huge blur after I yelled at Blake. Wait, I need to talk to Blake!" Yang said starting to move to get out of the bed.

"No, Yang! You're still really sick. You shouldn't be moving around yet, I'll go get her for you."

And before Yang could protest and say she was fine, Ruby ran out the room.

"Hey, Blake..." Ruby said walking over to the group. "Yang wants to talk to you."

Blake took a deep breath and made her way to Yang's room. She stopped right outside and couldn't help but just look at Yang for a few minutes before heading in. Even while sick and suffering from frostbite, Yang was still the most beautiful person Blake had ever seen, and just seeing her alive too was enough to make her feel weak in the knees.

"Hey, Yang..."

"Listen, Blake..."

"I'm so sorry!" they said at the same time.

Interrupting each other had them blushing and looking around the room, avoiding eye contact for a few seconds.

"Blake, this wasn't your fault. What Adam did to me, you have nothing to be sorry for. I have no idea why I said that stuff and you didn't deserve that. You're just as much as a victim as I am, and I am so, so sorry."

"I'm sorry too. I should've known babying you like that would only upset you. I-I just felt like I at least owed you that much."

"No... I get where you're coming from, I should've thought about why you were acting like that. So... we good?"

"Yeah..." Blake gave a smile that caused Yang's fever flushed face to darken even more. "We're good."


End file.
